Ex-marine Daniel Penny, who is charged with killing homeless man Jordan Neely on the subway last month, said he wasn’t “trying to choke him to death” when he jumped into action after Neely was threatening passengers.
Penny, 24, is charged with manslaughter after he was caught on video restraining Neely, 30, in a fatal chokehold on an F train.
Neely died from “compression of the neck,” according to the medical examiner’s office.
In a series of videos released by Penny’s lawyers on Sunday, the 24-year-old East Village resident denied that he held Neely by his throat for 15 minutes — as previously reported — and said he had no intention of taking his life in what he called a “scary situation.”
“The man stumbled on, he appeared to be on drugs, the doors closed, and he ripped his jacket off and threw it down at the people sitting next to me at my left,” Penny, who lives in the East Village, recounted.
“I was listening to music at the time, and I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling,” he continued. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over again were I’m going to kill you, I’m prepared to go to jail for life and I’m willing to die.”
Penny, who is 6’2”, noted that he was intimidated by Neely, who was bigger than him, as he yelled in “terrified” passengers’ faces.
He said he “couldn’t sit still” and potentially watch Neely carry out his threats.
“There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared. We’re actually taught one of our core values is courage, and courage is not the absence of fear but how you handle fear,” he said. “I was scared for myself but I looked around there was women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still.”
Video of the fatal encounter, which went viral, shows Penny holding Neely in a chokehold on the floor of the subway car until he stops moving.
“Some people say that I was holding on to Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true — between stops is only a couple of minutes. So the whole interaction lasted less than 5 minutes,” Penny clarified.
“Some people say I was trying to choke him to death — which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him.
“You can see in the video there’s a clear rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he’s breathing. I’m trying to restrain him from being able to carry out the threats.”
Penny said the grip he used to hold Neely down was “based on the force that he’s exerting.”
Neely never regained consciousness and was later pronounced dead.
Penny told The Post last month in an exclusive interview that the altercation with Neely, who is black, had nothing to do with race, stating “I’m not a white supremacist.”
In Sunday’s video, he emphasized that the notion the incident was fueled by race is “ridiculous.”
“I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers, I saw a man threatening passengers, a lot of whom were people of color,” Penny said.
At least two straphangers are seen in the video of the incident helping Penny restrain Neely.
“The man who helped restrain Mr. Neely was a person of color,” he pointed out. “A few days after the incident I read in the papers that a woman of color came out and called me a hero.
“I don’t believe that I’m a hero, but she was one of those people I was trying to protect, who were all scared,” he said.
Penny was initially taken into custody and released.
However, further investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office yielded an indictment.
“I was trying to keep him on the ground until the police came. I was praying that the police would come and take this situation over. I didn’t want to be put in that situation but I couldn’t just sit still and let him carry out these threats”
Neely, a former street performer who often impersonated Michael Jackson, had a history of mental illness but slipped through the cracks of the Big Apple’s mental health system.
Neely’s family blamed authorities for not ensuring he received the care needed for him to recover — and called on Penny to face murder charges.
The incident sparked protests, which led to numerous arrests.
Penny is due back in court on July 17.
